To my great joy, when
Mr Boyd returned, he told Dr Johnson that it was Lady Errol who had
called him out, and said that she would never let Dr Johnson into the
house again, if he went away that night; and that she had ordered the
coach, to carry us to view a great curiosity on the coast, after which
we should see the house. We cheerfully agreed.

Mr Boyd was engaged, in 1745-6, on the same side with many unfortunate
mistaken noblemen and gentlemen. He escaped, and lay concealed for a
year in the island of Arran, the ancient territory of the Boyds. He
then went to France, and was about twenty years on the continent. He
married a French lady, and now lived very comfortably at Aberdeen, and
was much at Slains castle. He entertained us with great civility. He
had a pompousness or formal plenitude in his conversation which I did
not dislike. Dr Johnson said, there was too much elaboration in his
talk. It gave me pleasure to see him, a steady branch of the family,
setting forth all its advantages with much zeal. He told us that Lady
Errol was one of the most pious and sensible women in the island; had
a good head, and as good a heart. He said, she did not use force or
fear in educating her children. JOHNSON. 'Sir, she is wrong; I would
rather have the rod to be the general terror to all, to make them
learn, than tell a child, if you do thus or thus, you will be more
esteemed than your brothers or sisters. The rod produces an effect
which terminates itself. A child is afraid of being whipped, and gets
his task, and there's an end on't; whereas, by exciting emulation, and
comparisons of superiority, you lay the foundation of lasting
mischief; you make brothers and sisters hate each other.'

During Mr Boyd's stay in Arran, he had found a chest of medical books,
left by a surgeon there, and had read them till he acquired some skill
in physick, in consequence of which he is often consulted by the poor.
There were several here waiting for him as patients. We walked round
the house till stopped by a cut made by the influx of the sea. The
house is built quite upon the shore; the windows look upon the main
ocean, and the King of Denmark is Lord Errol's nearest neighbour on
the north-east.

We got immediately into the coach, and drove to Dunbui, a rock near
the shore, quite covered with sea-fowls; then to a circular bason of
large extent, surrounded with tremendous rocks. On the quarter next
the sea, there is a high arch in the rock, which the force of the
tempest has driven out. This place is called Buchan's Buller, or the
Buller of Buchan, and the country people call it the Pot. Mr Boyd said
it was so called from the French Bouloir. It may be more simply traced
from Boiler in our own language. We walked round this monstrous
cauldron. In some places, the rock is very narrow; and on each side
there is a sea deep enough for a man of war to ride in; so that it is
somewhat horrid to move along. However, there is earth and grass upon
the rock, and a kind of road marked out by the print of feet; so that
one makes it out pretty safely: yet it alarmed me to see Dr Johnson
striding irregularly along. He insisted on taking a boat, and sailing
into the Pot. We did so. He was stout, and wonderfully alert. The
Buchan-men all shewing their teeth, and speaking with that strange
sharp accent which distinguishes them, was to me a matter of
curiosity. He was not sensible of the difference of pronunciation in
the south and north of Scotland, which I wondered at.

As the entry into the Buller is so narrow that oars cannot be used as
you go in, the method taken is to row very hard when you come near it,
and give the boat such a rapidity of motion that it glides in. Dr
Johnson observed what an effect this scene would have had, were we
entering into an unknown place. There are caves of considerable depth;
I think, one on each side. The boatmen had never entered either of
them far enough to know the size. Mr Boyd told us that it is customary
for the company at Peterhead well, to make parties, and come and dine
in one of the caves here.

He told us, that, as Slains is at a considerable distance from
Aberdeen, Lord Errol, who has a very large family, resolved to have a
surgeon of his own. With this view he educated one of his tenant's
sons, who is now settled in a very neat house and farm just by, which
we saw from the road. By the salary which the earl allows him, and the
practice which he has had, he is in very easy circumstances. He had
kept an exact account of all that had been laid out on his education,
and he came to his lordship one day, and told him that he had arrived
at a much higher situation than ever he expected; that he was now able
to repay what his lordship had advanced, and begged he would accept of
it. The earl was pleased with the generous gratitude and genteel offer
of the man; but refused it. Mr Boyd also told us, Cumming the Quaker
first began to distinguish himself, by writing against Dr Leechman on
prayer, to prove it unnecessary, as God knows best what should be, and
will order it without our asking--the old hackneyed objection.